Builders falling foul of red tape

Small building firms and tradesmen are increasingly falling foul of red tape due to the sheer weight of regulatory change that is being placed upon them, it has been advised.

The Construction Industry Council (CIC) has said that a series of changes to industry standards make it difficult for all firms to keep pace with the necessary legal requirements, and that this burden is especially difficult for smaller firms to bear.

And a lack of enforcement meant that many new requirements may not be being followed by firms, the council suggested.

"Clearly building regulations have good intentions; but the difficulty is keeping pace with them, and enforcing them because there aren't enough resources inside the industry to make enforcement comprehensive," commented CIC operations director Richard Biggs.

"Larger firms can more easily cope with targets and regulations and so on [smaller firms] find it very difficult to keep up to date," he added.


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